Enjoy your fresh squeezed orange juice with zero plastic-waste guilt with this prototype ‘circular juice bar.’
International design firm Carlo Ratti Associati in partnership with the energy company Eni, have developed their prototype for a machine that squeezes fresh orange juice and uses the leftover peels to 3D print bioplastic cups.
According to Wired, the machine called ‘Feel the Peel’ works by using some of the 1,500 oranges stacked on it’s dome to squeeze fresh orange juice on one side while drying and milling the discarded peels and then combining them with mixed with polylactic acid (PLA) to form a bioplastic on the other. This bioplastic is then fed into the machine’s 3D printer to produce the sustainable cups to drink the juice from.
This machine uses circularity to create a sustainable way to enjoy an everyday product – fresh squeezed orange juice. Circularity, or a circular economy, is the idea that rather than consuming and then producing waste, what was previously considered waste is part of the cycle and is re-used effectively.
‘Circularity can be an inspiration for tomorrow’s everyday life objects’, Carlo Ratti, founding partner at CRA told Wired, ‘working with Eni, we played around a machine that helps us to understand how oranges can be used well beyond their juice. In the next iterations of these projects, we might add new functions, such as printing fabric for clothing.’
The prototype has already been shown in public places across Italy to demonstrate it’s experiment in ‘extreme circularity’ and will be installed at the Singularity University Summit in Milan in October.
